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| Wheat from our winter classroom windowsill. |
Some abstract intangibles:
Light
Electrons
Inertia
If you think you know light, but see the world as solid, you do not know electrons.
If you think you know electrons, but imagine them as circling protons like planets, you don't know inertia.
And if you don't know inertia, you cannot know mass.
Which is OK--few people do, and I am not one of them, but we all pretend we do in high school science, and we test kids like they do, and we reduce science to something mystical and powerful, creating a nation that believes in ghosts and astrology.
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| Gardens remind us--from seeds in February to fruit in July |
Some concrete tangibles:
Water
Air
Bread
Oh, we can delve into the specifics of photosynthesis and CO2 and fermentation and all that good stuff we love to test, but in the end, the miracle is the stuff around us comes together, the stuff around us falls apart.
Doesn't take a high school diploma to see this, but plenty with advanced degrees do not.
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| From the bay, from the backyard. |
And we're all paying for their ignorance.
When was the last time Gregory R. Page, the CEO of Cargill, had a loaf of bread from freshly ground wheat?
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4 comments:
I'd imagine that Mr. Page has a cotillion of people who do nothing but grind wheat with rocks for his daily bread, and collect coffee beans from goat poo.
Trickle-down economics, I guess.
Dear Anonymous,
It's possible, but just about all of us can have fresh-ground flour.
Wheat berries are ridiculously cheap, and while a grinder will set you back about the price of a pair of sneakers, it pays for itself quickly.
A southern windowsill gets you fresh basil.
We can't all have a cotillion of people, nor would most of us want that. But almost all can have fresh bread.
Where do you buy your wheat berries?
Dear Lee,
Been a while since I needed any, but I got them from Bread Beckers, out of Georgia: http://www.breadbeckers.com/
They strike me as decent folk.
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